President Obama spent the day in Europe, meeting with foreign leaders in France and then heading to the Czech Republic. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.

According to disclosure documents filed today, Lawrence Summers made almost three million dollars in speaking fees from major commercial banks and investment banks and another $5.2 million as a managing director of D.E. Shaw Group, a large hedge fund.

From the Globe ...

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90- minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising and business office employees.

The concessions will be negotiated individually with each of the unions, said Totten and Ralph Giallanella, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local 259, which represents about 200 drivers who deliver the newspaper.

"We all know the newspaper industry is going through great transition and loss," said Giallanella. "The ad revenues have fallen off the cliff. Just based on everything that's going on around the country, they're serious."

Diana Palin, Sarah's sister-in-law, arrested for burglary.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA): We must act immediately "so that Iowa does not become the gay marriage Mecca due to the Supreme Court's latest experiment in social engineering."

Norm Coleman won't say whether he's talked to the FBI about Nasser Kazeminy, the businessman buddy who allegedly funneled $100,000 to Coleman to cover his living expenses.

Find out the latest on AIG's taxpayer funded PR blitz.

An interesting side question -- are we even getting good value paying to spin ourselves since one of the main spinners is Mark Penn?

Actually, come to think of it, it's worth a question of the day. If we need to pay a bailed out financial institution to spin us about how good a job they're doing, who would we want it to be to get the best value for our dollar?

Contestant Entry Update: TPM Reader MG says there's no question we'd get our best deal with Clinton spinmeister Terry McAuliffe. I could see it. Any other ideas? ... 4:11 PM ... Now TPM Readers MM and DW are pushing strongly for Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, sometimes, albeit rather jingoistically known as "Baghdad Bob". That aside, it seems like a good match.

There are a few details and color in Politico from that meeting Obama had with the bank CEOs last week ...

"These are complicated companies," one CEO said. Offered another: "We're competing for talent on an international market."

But President Barack Obama wasn't in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public's reaction to such explanations. "Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn't buying that."

"My administration," the president added, "is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

A wistful TPM Reader RC checks in ...

Something triggered a memory that made me wistful for the early days of the bailout. Remember "tranches".

Sometimes a single word comes to represent an era, but rarely does a word so perfectly signify a single month, while that month completely circumscribes the usefulness of the word. For a brief moment, everyone was discussing tranches, what they were, whether they were edible, who was getting them and where they might turn up next. You'd drop tranche in a conversation just to show you knew what was happening - "I'm not giving Johnnie his allowance all at once. Instead, he's getting the first tranche Wednesday."

A month later, tranches were gone. "Tranche" didn't even survive long enough to see the second tranche. Now, tranche is like "Ograbme" or "the XYZ Affair", so distant that most people wouldn't even know you were making a historical reference, let alone knowing the thing you were referring to. But damn, tranche was big for a few weeks.

Well, my investment banker friends had mentioned tranches to me here and there over the years. But yeah, brings back memories.

I'm not much of a vacationing type. But I've been going pretty much non-stop since late 2007 without a day off. So I'll be away next week, taking some downtime with my family. Of course, I'm just one of a dozen people running this site. So TPM will be covering the news as usual. Just I won't be here. I'll be back in a week, refreshed I hope, and ready to see if there's any news going on to cover.

Reich: Yep, it's a Depression.

Ezra Klein, on Evan Bayh's unsteady ideological course (including cool graph).

Sometimes, I have to confess, it's just a pleasure to hear President Obama speak at news conferences abroad. Here's video of Obama fielding a question yesterday in London about America's standing in the world. The video has the question and answer in its entirety. But the part that really caught my ear as we were listening yesterday in the office starts at about 2:45 in where he discusses the comparison to Bretton Woods.

Here's a link to the transcript of the entire news conference.

Iowa Supreme Court overturns state law limiting marriage to man and woman.

Obama, speaking in France on climate change: "We all know that time is running out. America must do more, Europe must do more." That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Sarah Palin jumps on the "Mark Begich should resign because Bush DOJ tainted his election by convicting Ted Stevens of corruption" bandwagon.